


dancing cheek to cheek

by godblesscicero



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Pining, Spoilers for Enchanting Grom Fright, i am imploding, we all know it's mutual but for now it's one-sided, wtf gay little amity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:08:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25803367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godblesscicero/pseuds/godblesscicero
Summary: After a song, and then another, and then another, and then another because she really can’t say no to Luz Noceda, Amity excuses herself briefly – to get a drink, she says, but it’s actually to stop her heart from exploding.-Or, Amity gets teased, Luz is completely oblivious, and overall Grom isn't as bad as forecasted.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 78
Kudos: 821





	dancing cheek to cheek

**Author's Note:**

> (as a note, i have to admit that maybe amity here is not 100% in character, maybe i wrote her too soft. But at the same time, consider: she is gay panicking. i believe that on the outside she may not show it, but on the inside she's constantly screaming.)

Despite what the name of the celebration might make one think, after the actual Grom fight, the party doesn’t nearly come to an end. The crowd carries them away from the cliff, into the woods; Skara slips in the mud and gets back up, screaming even louder than before, and everyone cheers after her. Overall, it’s almost wilder than the fight itself.

Luz looks at everybody with such enthusiasm, not fearing for a second that they might drop her, but when her gaze stops on Amity her eyes get softer: it takes everything Amity has in her not to take her hand.

The whole thing feels like a fever dream. Somehow she fears that, by touching Luz again, she’d put a stop to everything. So she smiles like she’s never done before – with her whole mouth. _It never felt this good before_ , Amity thinks as she twists her own hands. Her friend’s warm touch still lingers.

By the time they get to the school, a crowd has formed at the entrance. The cheers are so loud that the only way to make them bearable is by screaming herself, too, to cancel the outside noise.

Amity does, to the top of her lungs, and when she raises her head she finds Luz looking at her with the same eyes she had when they danced together on the cliff, but more playful this time. Amity feels the blush on her cheeks come back but Luz can’t see it because she throws herself into the other’s arms, laughing.

*

It’s stupid, but Amity can’t stop thinking about their matching crowns. About the fact that they’re _matching_ , just like they would if they were actually going to Grom together. Students notice, obviously, and the annoying (but also definitely _not annoying_ ) spotlight lands on them several times during the night – literally.

Luz never backs down from a challenge, or a dance: and so they dance in the silly way friends do, but here and there the feeling from the cliff comes back, everything clicks into place, Amity feels like a puzzle piece in Luz’s arms. As the other girl dips her, Amity feels as if her stomach is dipping far below the school’s foundations, and when she gets back up her insides jump a meter higher before settling down.

When she’s not dancing, she walks by the buffet with light steps looking for some water (which is _maybe_ the only beverage her siblings didn’t mess with). The students talk, excited.

_Did anybody see what happened after they left the school?_

_I wasn’t there but I heard there was a big fight on the cliff. And they danced together!_

_The human was trapped and Amity jumped out to save her! I don’t get why she didn’t want to be Grom Queen before. Her fear was so tame compared to the things we saw last year._

_Oh, it was so romantic. They danced under the moonlight._

_…Someone said they even kissed!_

Her ears burn like someone’s trying to light up a matchstick on them. She gulps down cup after cup of water, hoping to quell the burning ember in her chest.

She can feel people staring at her, like they could find the truth hidden in those strange moments by the sea just by boring their eyes in Amity’s neck. If the lights were a little bit brighter, they could notice the red that spreads on her neck, shoulders and cheeks, and that would give her away.

But the lights are low. Amity puts down her cup, swallows her embarrassment, walks in some other direction to try and find her friends.

*

Briefly, as she’s sitting on the bleachers, she thinks about how her invite is laying discarded somewhere in the woods or in the sea, wherever the wind brought it in the last hour.

With a clear mind, a much easier solution to this whole mess blossoms in her head: she could’ve asked Luz to Grom that morning.

Whatever the outcome, Grom’s form would’ve been something tamer than whatever _that_ was – it would’ve probably been something related to failure. In some way everyone at school knew that she had many, many responsibilities, so it was natural to fear letting people down. It wasn’t something _scandalous_ and terribly private, like what she ended up showcasing to the actual person concerned.

And Luz would’ve never said _no_ to her, now Amity could see that, bitterly. Luz would have agreed with such enthusiasm, she would have forced Amity to wear some dumb coordinated accessory, and they would’ve danced all night.

As friends. Because that’s how dense Luz is.

Amity groans and smothers her face with one hand. Luz was brilliant, smart and quick just as she was (albeit in a completely different way), but she was also incredibly dumb.

“You’re not enjoying the party?” A quiet voice throws her out of her thoughts. Willow stands beside her, with a kind but pained smile on her face. Reconnecting, it’s what she’s doing, and in the chaos Amity feels a bit relieved. This is something she can understand, and deal with.

“Hi, Willow.” She scoots over to let her sit down, even if there’s plenty of space – almost everybody is on the dance floor, moving wildly as teenagers do, knocking others over with their elbows and stepping on each other’s feet.

“The party is nice,” she says and surprisingly it doesn’t come out as forced as she thought it would, “I thought my brother and sister would do worse with the buffet, though. So far I’ve only heard people speak through animal sounds, some others’ skin turned green, and apparently some people now have left and right mixed. That can’t be good if you’re trying to _dance_.”

Willow laughs quietly, just as she’s always done.

“I think Gus fell for that first one, he’s been meowing for half an hour. Now he’s waiting for it to fade near the lockers with Luz.”

Amity tries not to perk up at her name, she really does. But at this point everybody must’ve noticed except for Luz herself, because Willow schools her features in a way that tells Amity that she would’ve very much liked to laugh in her face.

“Good luck with that. Ed and Em don’t go easy on these things.” Her monotone voice comes back, but Willow’s close enough that she can probably see the blush on her cheeks anyway. Amity speaks again to try and distract her. “Are _you_ enjoying the party?”

“I am,” Willow looks at the dance floor with a small smile on her lips. “I don’t really like to dance but it’s nice to see that everybody’s having fun.”

“Yes, well, the fight didn’t involve disgusting, horrifying or traumatizing things this year. So I guess there’s that, too.”

The other girl doesn’t speak for a few seconds.

“You know…” Willow’s voice has a suspicious quality to it, and Amity immediately decides that she doesn’t like it, “there’s only four or five people who know what actually happened out there.”

_Too many_ , Amity thinks with a grimace, _and also too little_. It’s not a surprise that so many versions of what happened are going around.

“If you want to know, you can easily ask Luz.” The sentence comes out with less of an aggressive bite and more of an embarrassed grumble. Amity hides her face again in her hands.

Surprisingly, Willow simply lays one hand on her back, patting her carefully.

“Come on, Amy.” The _so old_ nickname feels oddly good to her. “There are worse people.” Willow doesn’t say _to fall for_ , and it’s a small grace, but Amity groans anyway – she guesses that this conversation is some sort of harmless revenge on Willow’s side. Her old friend would never dare to take her rightful vendetta, one that Amity would deserve, but somehow she thinks that it’d still be better than whatever this is.

Her next words come out of her mouth like she’s chewing on them.

“She is _so_ dense.” Amity grits out painfully. “I don’t think she understand what all of this is.”

“She’s here.”

“Yes, and I appreciate that, but it doesn’t count if she doesn’t know what I mean- You didn’t see it play out, but how couldn’t she understand that the shape Grom took was _her_ , I can’t fathom how-“

“No, I mean, she’s coming here.”

Amity lifts her head so quickly her neck hurts afterwards. Luz is really charging towards them with her biggest smile plastered on her face – every time Amity thinks that she’s reached her peak smile, Luz proves her wrong. She doesn’t even think she’s got the face muscles to make that kind of expression. She’d cramp.

Still, of all the things that happened tonight, Luz’s smile is what makes her knees wobble. And she’s sitting.

“Soooo,” Luz sings once she’s standing on the seats below them, “what’s my _date_ doing here, sitting away from everybody? Are you moping? Willow, was she moping?”

Willow snickers and Amity dreads her fate.

“As much as it pains me to say so, she was.” So much for rekindling their old friendship: Willow has gotten sneakier over the years. Luz fakes an enormous gasp, a shocked expression on her face. “Her moping energy was so strong it brought me here, but to un-mope her is not my destiny.”

Amity wonders how rude it’d be if she elbowed her old friend, but before she can commit, Luz leans on Amity’s knees, hands gripping on her shoes, big puppy eyes looking at her face like she just slapped her. Amity, to put it simply, wants to die.

“Then that means I’m being the worst Grom date in history, allowing my beauty to mope here by herself.” Luz rises in a dramatic pose, then offers her hand. Amity takes it like a lifeline.

“Starting tomorrow we’ll think of a plan to get you and your mystery date together, my beloved.”

Willow, still beside them, chokes on a laugh. She should’ve elbowed her when she had the chance.

“But tonight, please, try not to think about that.” Luz pulls on Amity’s hand, just as the next song begins. “Now, let’s dance!”

*

After a song, and then another, and then another, _and then another_ because she really can’t say no to Luz Noceda, Amity excuses herself briefly – to get a drink, she says, but it’s actually to stop her heart from exploding.

Predictably, she finds Edric messing with the paper cups.

“Why can’t you just enjoy the party without ruining it for the others?” She grumbles, reaching for another pile of cups that’s safely distanced from her brother. Edric doesn’t even look at her as he performs a spell on the cups he’s holding, something Amity can’t recognize. But then again, she doesn’t recognize most of the tricks her sibling perform.

“Why would I ruin it? People are having a blast with our green skin spell. You should see the photos they take, they’re so hideous it’s funny!” Amity rolls her eyes.

“And for our next trick, if you drink from these cups you’re compelled to tell your crush you like them.”

Amity spits everything out.

“What?!”

Her brother is laughing so loudly that people start to stare, Amity shoves his shoulder with a good amount of violence, but Edric doesn’t even budge. He gets back to his spells, still snickering.

“Relax, Mittens, I’m joking. It’s much worse, actually, but I haven’t had the time to curse your cup.” Amity doesn’t bother to ask.

“I don’t care. Just don’t make the school explode, or something.” Edric turns towards her and bows deeply, to mock her.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Your Highness, Queen of Grom. Now go and enjoy your night of smooching with your handsome date.”

People stare again when Amity scrunches her half full paper cup on her brother’s face, with full intent to hurt, but this time she doesn’t let it bother her. As she walks away, Edric is still sputtering.

*

Sadly, everything must come to an end.

The students start to leave. Amity watches green and mooing/barking/meowing teenagers exit through the doors as she sits, once again, on the bleachers, and every person that leaves feels like a very small needle poking at her heart.

One by one, the stitches that tie her and Luz together break, painfully so. When she’ll be forced to get out of the gym, too, the night will end, so Amity stays rooted in her uncomfortable seat.

For now, Luz is still dancing with anybody that’s still awake enough to humor her – Amity suspects her popularity will rise in the following days, if the curious stares are anything to go by. A glimpse of jealousy twinges in her chest, but it’s promptly stomped out by something that’s even worse.

_It’s_ me _she danced with_. _Even if it was out of pity_.

She’s wonderful, as she dances, as if every song was her favourite. Earlier, Luz had pulled her, Willow and Gus together to take a photo, and Amity feared the result so much that she snatched it out of the photographer’s hand with the same fury she had in the morning when she took her note back from Luz’s hand.

All in all, she muses, it’s a good photo. But she’s also painfully aware of how idiotic she looks: her round, red cheeks, her trembling smile, as Luz was hugging her, are bad by themselves, but it’s her eyes that give her away more than anything else. Amity couldn’t tear her eyes away from Luz’s smile, not even when the camera clicked.

_Ridiculous_ , she sighs. In the low lights, the photo’s colours aren’t so bright, and Luz’s face isn’t, either.

Amity wonders if the next day she’d feel the same struggling while looking at the picture in another light – if that obnoxious, pulling sensation would disappear, or worsen.

There’s something, in her throat, threatening to spill out. She thought that being so close to Luz would make her feel a little better about this whole thing, that if she selfishly took this small thing for herself, then she’d be able to rest. The truth is that now it’s gotten so much worse: now that she has allowed herself to _feel_ so freely, it doesn’t seem like she wants to stop any time soon.

It’s so unspeakable, this whole feeling. Amity can’t bear to look at the picture any longer and she stuffs it in her pocket (still, as carefully as she can), crumbling a little on herself.

“It’s that bad, huh? I didn’t think you were capable of _not_ looking good in pictures.”

From behind, Luz’s voice startles her so much she almost falls over.

“Luz! How- But you were on the dance floor-”

The girl plops down next to her, maybe a little too close. She’s tired from all that dancing and she’s taking big breaths, her chest rising up and down quickly. Still, she wiggles her fingers, making one of her human gestures that don’t mean anything here on the Boiling Isles.

“I wanted to sneak up on you, so I took the stairs and climbed to all the way up here.” Luz takes off her suit jacket, roughly folding it beside her. “Can I see the photo?”

“Oh, uhm.” Amity can feel her cheeks warm up again. “Actually, no. It didn’t develop right. I don’t know what went wrong. There’s nothing.”

The girl deflates a little. And then, since Amity’s evening doesn’t suck nearly enough yet, she leans on her shoulder. The string that was pulling from inside her before becomes a sturdy rope, and Amity has to grip her skirt as hard as she can not to spill over. Her whole body turns to jelly, just like it did when Luz held her close as that picture was taken.

“That’s too bad. It would’ve been nice to have a keepsake of my first Grom.”

“You’ll have to come again to the next one, then.” Amity forces out a small laughter, that’s quickly covered by Luz’s noisier one.

“I hope you’ll manage to ask your actual date out when the day comes. You really don’t have anything to fear, and besides, who’d be dumb enough to refuse you?” Luz’s head comes off her shoulder so quickly that the loss of contact kind of breaks Amity’s heart. “You’re so smart and fun to be around. Plus, you’re a great dancer.”

Amity waves her hand to dismiss all of that, closing her eyes briefly to avoid the other girl’s gaze.

“Actually, you better be quick to ask your date out when the day comes. Or _I_ might ask you out first again.” As she talks, Luz shoves her shoulder playfully, and laughs again, this time with a little snort.

Amity, surprisingly, wants to shrink into the smallest speck of dirt one could find on the bleachers’ seats. She tries to compose herself and hopes that her stiff behavior doesn’t pass as smitten, but simply as her usual snobbish.

“I had so much fun tonight. You truly saved my Grom, Luz. I don’t know how it would’ve ended without you.”

“Hey, I already told you, that’s what friends do!” The flashing lights meet them for a split second, and they shine on Luz’s crown, still hanging on her head. Amity is reminded of the pretty jewel that crowns her head, too, and lifts one hand to feel the cold metal with her fingers.

“Besides, it’s me who should be thanking you. You saved me from that thing just in time! The way you jumped out of the trees, Amity- did you climb up there just to do that? Because that was _so_ cool. And also, were you waiting for the right moment to make an entrance? That’s a whole kind of devotion to dramatic effects, but also I feel you could’ve come out _juuust_ a little bit sooner, because I was really scared for a second-”

Amity laughs, and it is truly a wonder, just like every other time: Luz’s cascading words never fail to amaze her, a display of how many thoughts are constantly running around in the girl’s head. They tumble out in a way that would be confusing to anybody else but for Luz is, somehow, ordered enough.

“No, Luz.” She’s surprisingly calm as she takes Luz’s hand in hers. “I wanted to make sure Grom’s attention would be on me, not you, and falling from the sky seemed like the most eye-catching way of doing so. I just had to climb the trees with my Abomination and it took a little time.”

“That’s cool, that’s cool.” Luz conceded. “But you know I wouldn’t hold it against you anyway.”

They don’t speak for a while. Amity tries not to think about how much she’s probably sweating against her friend’s hand: Luz doesn’t seem to mind, and she must feel warm, too, since she took off her jacket.

Whatever struggling feeling she was feeling before has calmed down noticeably, Amity muses. She berates herself for always making things so complicated – so she has a crush, a dreadful, terrifying crush on a human girl that jumped out of who knows where, what about it? Luz is kind, and friendly, and warm. She’d never mistreat her, not with the intent of doing so.

The way she has treated Amity for the whole night speaks volumes to her, about how much she really cares. Everything beside that, Amity could handle it one way or the other.

“It’s really nice, you know.” Luz’s voice startles her a bit, Amity’s grip on her hand strengthens. “I’m thankful you made the effort to know me a little better. I guess I can be... annoying, sometimes. But you looked so cool, I just wanted to know you! And it paid off.”

Amity tries to keep her eyes on the dance floor even if it’s basically empty by now, but Luz moves to be in her visual field. She’s wearing a grin.

“And I got to dance with the prettiest and smartest girl in the whole school! Can you believe it, _the_ famed Amity Blight and Luz the human? Oh, what will Hexside think! The gossip! The malice!”

Their hands are still linked together and Amity doesn’t want to break contact – she lifts both their hands to smack lightly Luz in her face, but she’s laughing, and Luz is, too.

“Shut it. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve heard from the students tonight.”

“ _You_ wouldn’t believe the things I’ve heard from the students tonight.”

Amity can’t help but blush, rolling her eyes to try and disperse the gnawing feeling that’s coming back to munch on her insides. 

Does Luz know? The way people talked about them tonight? And was she repulsed, disgusted? Her stomach, did it churn like hers is doing right now?

The glowing colours around them switch off in that moment: the only source of cold light comes from the stage where Gus ran the show during the fight earlier in the evening. It’s even lower than before, and Amity feels concrete in her mouth. Luz looks around, counting the few people that are still inside the gym. She fishes something out of a pocket in her jacket, some tool that glows in her face.

Her expression transforms a little, going from the usual to surprise to something that resembles sadness, or guilt. As the tries to ask, Luz pockets the tool again, sighing, but she’s smiling again as her gaze lands on Amity.

“I guess the party’s over, and it’s kind of late. I better head back. You want help to find Emira and Edric?”

Amity shivers at the prospect of getting teased for the umpteenth time – she was lucky that Emira wasn’t anywhere to be found earlier, because she would’ve been _much_ more annoying than Edric.

“Don’t worry, they’ll most likely find me first. You’ve seen how good they are at bothering me day and night.”

Luz nods, finally standing up and letting go of Amity’s hand. The loss hurts in a way that Amity can’t begin to comprehend. Five minutes more. A minute more. A second more, that’s all she’s asking-

“Well then. I know it’s not the same to hear it from _me_ , but you were the most wonderful date anyone could wish for.” Before Amity can reply with similar words, Luz is bending towards her, hands landing softly on her shoulders.

Amity’s heart jumps in her throat, threatening to choke her, and for some absurd reason her gaze blurs, the thinnest coat of tears shining on her eyes. Luz’s kiss lands on her cheek, quietly, and it’s over before she can even blink.

“Thank you for tonight, Amity! See you at school!”

Her hand waves a silent goodbye, moving by itself. Amity doesn’t trust herself to speak, or walk, or function, and so she sits there for a while, waiting for something. After a minute or two, when her siblings don’t jump out of thin air to bother her, she gets down from the bleachers. The light is stronger down near the floor, where the rest of the students’ council is tidying up what they can before they call it a night.

Amity fishes for the picture that had been hidden in her dress pocket.

Luz’s face is so bright and happy her heart skips again, but she doesn’t stop looking at it. Not even as she walks through the door and into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> this feels like a fever dream guys i'm still recovering from the latest episode!! WHAT WAS THAT
> 
> anyway thanks to my love @whatachaos who read all of this even if she doesn't watch toh and also listened to me scream about lumity yesterday for the whole evening. still, english is not our first language, so if anything slipped by i'm sorry
> 
> the title obviously comes from "cheek to cheek", a song you can find in many versions. It felt really fitting because of its “head over heels in love” vibe, and also because dancing. Also, if anyone’s wondering, yes: emira was out there somewhere, smooching viney


End file.
